Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights of a vehicle

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights of a vehicle. The apparatus includes an ignition switch having &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;ON&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; and &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;OFF&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; contact terminals and at least one pole, a light control switch for turning the lights of the vehicle on and off, and a source of power coupled to the pole of the ignition switch and to the light control switch. Means are provided for automatically moving the light control switch to the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;OFF&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; position for extinguishing the lights of the vehicle. There is also provided electric circuit means coupled to the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;OFF&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; contact terminal of the ignition switch so that an electric current is supplied from the source of power through the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;OFF&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; contact terminal of the ignition switch and to the electric circuit means for activating the automatic moving means when the pole of the ignition switch is electrically connected to the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;OFF&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; contact terminal of the ignition switch.

United States Patent [1 1 Hollins 1451 Sept. 18, 1973 APPARATUS FORAUTOMATICALLY EXTINGUISHING LIGHTS OF A VEHICLE [76] Inventor: Jesse R.IIollins, 1 Chester Dr., Great 1 Neck, NY. 11021 [22] Filed: Nov. 8,1971 [21] Appl. No.: 196,274

Primary Examiner-J. D. Miller 7 Assistant Examiner-Harry E. Moose, Jr.Att0rney-Morris Kirschstein et' al.

57 ABSTRACT Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights of avehicle. The apparatus includes an ignition switch having ON and OFF"contact terminals and at least one pole, a light control switch forturning the lights of the vehicle on and off, and a source of powercoupled to the pole of the ignition switch and to the light controlswitch. Means are provided for automatically moving the light controlswitch to the OFF position for extinguishing the lights of the vehicle.There is also provided electric circuit means coupled to the OFF contactterminal of the ignition switch so that an electric current is suppliedfrom the source of power through the OFF contact terminal of theignition switch and to the electric circuit means for activating theautomatic moving means when the pole of the ignition switch iselectrically connected to the OFF contact terminal of the ignitionswitch.

5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENTEDSEPY 81915 3.760.238

sum 3 at 3 QUE w h OE @OE APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY EXTINGUISHINGLIGHTS OF A VEHICLE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention This invention relates to an apparatus for automaticallyextinguishing lights of a vehicle, and more particularly to electriccircuit means coupled to the OFF contact terminal of an ignition switchto activate means for automatically moving a light control switch to itsOFF position for extinguishing the vehicular lights.

2. Description of the Prior Art In present automotive vehicles, theheadlights and parking lights, etc. are turned on and off manually bythe operator of the vehicle. When driving at night, the

operator of a vehicle will turn the vehicular lights on. However, uponleaving the vehicle, especially if the vehicle is parked in a heavilyilluminated area such as a city street or a whether he center, thedriver will often forget to extinguish the headlights. If the driver isoperating a vehicle in the early morning hours while it is still dark,he will have his headlights turned on but may tend to forget toextinguish the lights upon leaving the vehicleafter the sun has risen.Furthermore, the vehicular lights are often turned on during daylighthours when there is inclement weather, such as fog, heavy rain or snowstorms, and again the driver may tend to forget to extinguish thevehicular lights upon leaving the vehicle.

Leaving the vehicular lights on over an extended period of time when themotor is off results in the discharge of the battery. If the dischargeof the battery continues over too long a period of time, the batterywill not have sufficient electric energy to crank the engine. Oftentimesthe driver will park his vehicle and will not remember whethr he hadextinguished the lights and he will return to his parked vehicle tocheck to see if the lights actually had been turned off. It is sometimesinconvenient for him to make this type of a checkup trip, especiallyduring the cold winter months. In cold weather, the cranking of thevehicle requires more electric energy, thus requiring a more highlycharged battery than in warm summer months. It is thus especiallyimportant during the winter that the vehicular lights not be left on forany prolonged period of time when the engine is not running.

The vehicular accessory equipment, such as electric windshield wipermotor, heater and fan motors, exhaust motor, radio, air-conditioningunit, etc., are all connected to the ON terminal or the accessoryterminal of the ignition switch, wherein all these accessories cannotoperate when the ignition switch is in the OFF position. Therefore, noneof these accessories will operate when the ignition key is removed fromthe ignition switch and the vehicle is parked. It is impractical toconnect the vehicular lights to the ON" or accessory positions of theignition switch since the load is too heavy for the ignition-switch tocarry. Furthermore, there may often be times when the driver of avehicle will wish to operate some or all of his vehicular lights whenthe car is parked and the engine is not running, thus the vehicularlight switch is directly electrically connected to the battery of thevehicle.

1 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION l. Purpose of the Invention It is an objectof this invention to provide an apparatus for automaticallyextinguishing the lights-of a vehicle after the vehicle is parked andthe engine is no longer running.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus forautomatically extinguishing the lights of a vehicle, which apparatus iselectrically activated when the ignition switch of the vehicle is in theOFF" position.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part bepointed out hereinafter.

2. Brief Description of the Invention According to a broad aspect of theinvention, there is provided an apparatus for automaticallyextinguishing lights of a vehicle comprising an ignition switch havingON and OFF" contact terminals and at least one pole; a light controlswitch for turning the lights of the vehicle on and off; a source ofpower coupled to said one pole of said ignition switch and to said lightcontrol switch; means for automatically moving said light control switchto an OFF" position for extinguishing the lights; and electric circuitmeans coupled to the OFF contact terminal of said ignition switch,whereby an electric current is supplied from said source of powerthrough said ignition switch whensaid one pole is electrically connectedto the OFF contact terminal of said ignition switch, and to saidelectric circuit means for activating said automatic moving means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings in whichare shown various possible embodiments of my invention,

FIG. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the invention wherein thelight control switch is so positioned as to have all the vehicularlights on, and there is included a switch for disenabling the automaticlights extinguishing mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view of the light control switch (shown inFIG. 1) wherein the light control switch is so positioned as to have allthe vehicular lights on, except for the headlights;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 after theautomatic extinguishing-mechanism has been activated, wherein thedisenabling switch is omitted; I

FIG. 4 is a plan view of another embodiment of the invention wherein asolenoid is used to hold the light control switch in position;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view of FIG. 4 showing a heater coil windingelectrically connected in series with a winding of the solenoid,

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of the invention wherein the light controlswitch is so positioned as to have all the vehicular lights on, and asolenoid provides FIG. II is a plan view of the ignition switch whenonly the accessories are electrically activated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the apparatusfor automatically extinguishing the lights of a vehicle is shown in FIG.1.

A ignition switch is shown having an OFF contact terminal 12, an ON"contact terminal 14 connected to the ignition system of the engine, anaccessory contact terminal 16 for energizing the accessories such as theradio, windshield wiper motor, fan motor, etc., and contact terminal 18connected to a solenoid for cranking the motor of the vehicle.

A light control switch 20 is also shown having'a knob 22 connected to ashaft 24. In this instance the shaft can be made of electricallyconductive material and its end 26 opposite knob 22 can have a flexiblelead 28 connected to circuit ground. Shaft 20 can move within a housing30. Interior to housing 30, a hot terminal 32 can be insulatedly mountedthereon and a respective first and second terminal 34 and 36 can also beinsulatedly mounted to the interior of housing 30. An electricallyconductive member 38 can be insulatedly attached to shaft 20 viainsulating bushing 39, and member 38 can be so dimensioned as to makeelectrical contact between hot terminal 32 and first and secondterminals 34 and 36. First terminal 34 is connected to the vehicularheadlights and second terminal 36 is connected to the remaining lightsof the vehicle, such as tail lights, parking lights, instrument panellights, etc. Hot terminal 32 is electrically connected through anoverload circuit breaker 40 to one terminal 42 of a source of power suchas battery 44. The other terminal 46 of battery 44 is electricallyconnected to circuit ground. It should be noted that electrical leadwire 48 connected to hot terminal 32, electrical lead wire 49 connectedto first terminal 34, and electrical lead wire 50 connected to secondterminal 36, are all insulated from housing 30 since housing 30 can begrounded. It also should be noted that light control switch 20 is atwo-position switch only in the sense that when it is positioned to makeelectrical contact between hot terminal 32 and both first and secondterminals 34 and 36 (as shown in FIG. 1) all of the vehicular lights areturned on, and when light control switch 20 is so positioned (as shownin FIG. 2) that hot terminal 32 will only be electrically connected tosecond terminal 36, all of the vehicular lights except for theheadlights will be turned on. It should also be noted that light controlswitch 20 can be manually operated to turn some or all the lights on andto turn all'of the lights off.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, shaft'20 is spring loaded by acompression spring 52 located between head 54 of shaft 24 and side 56 ofhousing 30. In this manner, compression spring 52 will tend toelectrically connect housing 30 tocircuit ground. Also compressionspring 54 will be trying to move shaft 24 a sufficient distance so thatelectrically conducting member 38 no longer makes electrical contactbetween hot terminal 32 and first and second terminals 34 and 36 (asshown in FIG. 3).

In order to prevent compression spring 52 from always automaticallyplacing shaft 24 in such a position as to turn all the vehicular lightsoff (as shown in FIG. 3), means for holding light control switch 20 ineither of the first or second ON positions is provided. This holdingmeans includes a latch-receiving member 58 and an arm-latching member60. Latch-receiving member 58 has a channel 61 for housing at least aportion of compression spring 52 and a portion of shaft 24, wherein oneend 62 of compression spring 52 is fastened to a closed end 63 ofchannel61. Latch-receiving member 58 is fastened to shaft 24 adjacent head 54of shaft 24. Latch-receiving member 58 can have first and secondrespective recesses 64 and 65 formed within an outer portion thereof.Recesses 64 and 65 in this example are circular grooves. Arm-latchingmember 60 can have one end 66 fastened to housing 30, but electricallyinsulated therefrom by insulating member 68 which is positioned betweenhousing 30 and arm-latching member 60. The other end of arm-latchingmember 60 has a protruding portion 70 which is resiliently movable in adirection radial to the axis of shaft 24. Protruding portion 70 is soshaped as to extend within either of recesses 64 and 65 inlatch-receiving member 58 so as to physically engage latch-receivingmember 58, and hold latch-receiving member 58 and shaft 24 stationarywhenever protruding portion 70 is placed in either recess 64 or 65. Whenprotruding portion 70 of armlatching member 60 is placed within recess64, light control switch 20 is placed in a first ON" position and allthe vehicular lights are turned on, and when protruding portion 70 ofarm-latching member 60 is placed within recess 65 of latch-receivingmember 58, light control switch 20 is placed in a second ON" positionand all of the vehicular lights, except for the headlights, are turnedon.

When protruding portion 70 of arm-latching member 60 is placed withineither of recesses 64 and 65 of latch-receiving member 58, there isprovided sufficient force to overcome the force of compression spring52. The above described holding means does not prevent the operator ofthe vehicle from manually moving the light control switch to either ofthe first and second ON positions or the OFF" position. The means forautomatically moving the light control switch to the OFF" position forextinguishing the lights is provided by the force exerted by compressionspring 52.

Electric circuit means for activating the automatic moving means and forallowing compression spring 52 to move light control switch 20 to theOFF" position is provided as follows. Terminal 42 of battery 44 iselectrically connected to center tap terminal 76 ofignition switch 10.Poles 78 and 80 are also electrically connected to center tap terminal76. As shown in FIG. 1, pole 78 is in electrical contact with contactterminal 14 for supplying power to the ignition system and pole 80 iselectrically connected to contact terminal 16 for supplying power to thevehicular accessories. Now (as shown in FIG. 3) when the ignition switchis turned to the "OFF" position, pole 78 is electrically connected tothe OFF" contact terminal I2 so as to supply power to the electriccircuit means for activating the automatic moving means. Even though theOFF" contact terminal of the ignition switch will carry electriccurrent, we will still refer to this contact terminal as the OFF"contact terminal since the engine will be off when the ignition key isplaced. in the OFF position. The OFF contact terminal 12 is electricallycoupled to one end 81 of heater coil 82, which heater coil surrounds amovable arm of a bi-metallic member. This movable arm of the bi-metallicmember is the same as the previously referred to arm-latching member 60.

The other end 83a of heater coil 82 is electrically connected toarm-latching member 60. Therefore (as shown in FIG. 3) when the ignitionswitch is in the OFF position and pole 78 is electrically connected tothe OFF contact terminal 12, current will pass through heater coil 82 toarm-latching member 60 through latch-receiving member 58 and shaft 24 tocircuit ground when the protruding portion 70 of armlatching member 60is placed within either of recesses 64 and 65 (as shown in FIGS. 1 and2) and engages latch-receiving member 58. It should of'course be notedthat arm-latching member 60, latch-receiving member 58 and shaft 24 areelectrically conductive to provide a good low resistance path to circuitground- As current passes through heater coil 82, it begins to heat upand thereby heats up arm'latching member 60. As arm-latching member 60heats up and since it is a bi-metallic member, the protruding portion 70of armlatching member 60 begins to move out of the recess inlatch-receiving member 58 until the holding force of latch-receivingmember 58 and arm-latching member 60 becomes less than the force exertedby compression spring 52, whereupon compression spring 52 causes shaft24 of light control switch to move in such a manner and for such adistance that its electrical conducting member 58 no longer electricallycontacts hot terminal 32 and first and second terminals 34 and 36 (asshown in FIG. 3). As also shown in FIG. 3, armlatching member 60 nolonger electrically contacts any part of latch-receiving member 58,thereby causing the electric current, which has been flowing throughheater coil 82, to cease to flow so as not to discharge or drain battery44. Since current no longer flows through heater coil 82, arm-latchingmember 60 will cool off and return to its original position. It shouldbe noted that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, one end 81 of coil 82is directly electrically connected to OFF contact terminal 12 and underthese circumstances, whenever the ignition key is in the OFF position,the automatic extinguishing circuit will be activated whenever thelights are turned on.

Since there may be occasions when the operator of the vehicle would wantto have some of the vehicular lights on for an extended period of timewhile the ignition key is off, a disenabling switch 83 (shown in FIG. 1)can be connected between end 81 of coil 82 and OFF contact terminal 12of ignition switch 10. This disenabling switch 83 can be .a make andbreak type switch having a movable rod 84 and an electrically connectingarmmember 85 insulatedly mounted onto rod 84. One end'86 of connectingarm 85 is electrically connected to OFF contact terminal 12. The otherend 87 of connecting arm 85 is in electrical contact with a makecontactterminal 88, and is electrically connected to end 81 of heatercoil 82 when rod 84 of disenabling switch 83 is depressed and in themake position. The other end 87 of connecting arm electrically contactsbreak contact terminal 89 and is electrically connected to a pilot light90 when rod 84 of disenabling switch 83 is pulled out and in the breakposition.

Thus when disenabling switch 83 is in the break posithe automatic lightextinguishing mechanism has been disabled. Pilot light 90 can bedesigned as an integral part of disenabling switch 83, or may be omittedif desired.

Disenabling switch 83 also contains interlocking means for preventingdisenabling switch 83 from being placed in the break position when lightcontrol switch 20 is in the OFF position, and for returning disenablingswitch 83 to the make position (if it were previously in the breakposition) when light control switch 20 is being manually positioned toturn off all the vehicular lights. Thus the interlocking means will onlyallow disenabling switch 83 to be placed in the break position whenlight control switch 20 has first been placed in one of the two ON"positions. The interlocking means can be provided by an extending member91 attached to end 92 of rod 84. Member 91 has a flanged portion 93extending over and adjacent to the top 94 of latchreceiving member 58.

It should also be noted that in the above embodiments, the automaticextinguishing of the lights will occur within a reasonable time delayafter the ignition switch has been turned to the of position. This timedelay is determined by the amount of current which flows through theheater coil, the resistance of heater coil, the number of turns of theheater coil, and the responsiveness of the bi-metallic arm-latchingmember 60 to increases in temperature. Therefore it should be noted thatby simply changing the number of turns of the heater coil whichsurrounds arm-latching member 60, the time delay in automaticallyextinguishing the lights can be changed. A convenient time delay couldrange from approximately 60 to 90 seconds and could vary therefrom inaccordance with design requirements.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 4. In thisembodiment similar means for holding the light control switch 20stationary in either of the first or second ON positions is provided byanother latch-receiving member 95, having recesses 96 and 97 within asurface portion thereof, and a spring loaded pin 98 which will fit intoeither recess 96 or 97. Electric circuit means are again coupled to theOFF" contact terminal 12 of ignition switch 10 via conducting wire 98which is connected to a first terminal member 100, which first terminalmember is insulatedly mounted to the interior of housing 30. It againshould be noted that conductingwire 99 is electrically insulated fromhousing 30 since housing 30 may be grounded. The electric circuit meansalso includes an additional electrically conductive member 102 which isinsulatedly attached to shaft 24 via insulating bushing 103 since shaft24 is or can be grounded. Electrically conductive member 102 extendswithin housing 30 so as to electrically contact first terminal member toa second terminal member 104, which second terminal member is alsoinsulatedly mounted to the interior of housing 30. Terminal member104 iselectrically connected to a movable arm 106 of a bi-metallic switch 108.A heater coil 110 is placed around movable am 106 and one end 112 ofheater coil 110 is electrically connected to circuit ground, while theother end 114 of heater coil 110 is electrically connected to themovable arm 106 of bimetallic switch 108. Bi-metallic switch 108 has afixed arm 116 which is electrically connected via conducting wire 118 toone end 120 ofa winding 122 ofa solenoid 124. The other end 126 ofwinding 122 is electrically connected to circuit ground. Spring loadedpin 98 actually is the solenoid plunger for solenoid 124 and willwithdraw into open core area 128 of solenoid 124 when sufficient currentpasses through winding 122 of solenoid 124. It should be noted thatlatch-receiving member 95 is mechanically and electrically connected tothe end 130 of shaft 24, and the automatic moving means is againprovided by a compression spring 132 which has one end thereof placedwithin a chamber 134 in latch-receiving member 95. Compression spring132 at least partially surrounds shaft 24, and the other end ofcompression spring 132 is either attached to or is pressed against side136 of housing 30.

Again, when pole 78 of ignition switch 10 is not electrically connectedto OFF contact terminal 12, no

current will flow through heater coil 110 when light control switch isin either of the first or second ON" positions, and bi-metallic switch108 will be open so that movable arm 106 does not electrically contactfixed arm 1 16. When pole 78 of ignition switch 10 is electricallyconnected to OFF contact terminal 12, current flows through conductingwire 99, terminal member 100, electrically conductive member 102,terminal member 104 and heater coil 110 to circuit ground. As heatercoil 110 heats up, transferring its heat to movable bi-metallic arm 106,movable arm 106 begins to move towards fixed arm 116 until electricalcontact is made between movable 106 and fixed arm 116, thereby closingbi-metallic switch 108. Once bimetallic switch l08closes, electriccurrent then flows through movable arm 106, fixed arm 116, conductor 118and through winding 122 to circuit ground, so as to energize solenoid124, whereupon spring loaded pin 98 retracts into open core area 128.The moment the holding force between pin 98 and latch-receiving member95 becomes less than the force .of compression spring 132, shaft 24moves a sufiicient distance so that electrically conductive member 38 nolonger makes electrical contact between hot terminal32 and first andsecond terminals 34 and 36, thereby extinguishing all of the vehicularlights which were electrically connected to terminals 34 and36. Also,after compression spring 132 has forced shaft 24 to move a sufficientdistance to extinguish the vehicular lights, electrically conductivemember 102 no longer makes electrical contact between terminal member100 and terminal member 104 so that current no longer flows throughheater coil 112 and solenoid winding 122 to circuit ground so as toensure that battery 44 will not discharge when the ignition switch is inthe OFF" position.

In the alternate embodiment shown in FIG. 5, end 112 of heater coil 110is electrically connected to fixed arm 1 16 via conductive wire 138 sothat heater coil 1 10 is electrically connected in series with solenoidwinding 122 when bi-metallic switch 108 is open. Now, when ignitionswitch 10 is turned to the OFF position, electric current flows inseries through heater coil 110 and solenoid winding 122 to circuitground. Since heater coil 110 generally has a relatively highresistance, the current flowing through solenoid winding 122 is notgreat enough to activate the solenoid, although the passing current issufficient to heat up heater coil 110 and to transfer its heat tomovable arm 106. Once bi-metallic switch 108 closes, heater coil 110 isshunted and more current flows directly through solenoid winding 122, soas to activate solenoid 124 and retract pin 98, thereby activating thepreviously described automatic extinguishing means so that current willcease to flow to the vehicular lights and to heater coil 110 andsolenoid winding 122, thereby preventing the discharge of battery 44.Again, once current ceases to flow through heater coil 110, movable arm106 cools returning the bi-metallic switch 108 to its open circuitposition.

FIG. 6 shows a still further embodiment of the invention wherein secondterminal member 104 is directly electrically connected to one end 140 ofa winding 142 of a solenoid 144, wherein the other end 146 of winding142 is electrically connected to circuit ground. In this embodiment oneend 147 ofa solenoid plunger 148 fits partially within a clear open corearea 150 of solenoid 144. The other end 149 of solenoid plunger 148 isattached to and extends axially from shaft 24. Now, when light controlswitch is in either of the first or sec ond ON" position and theignition switch is turned to the OFF" position, electric current flowsimmediately through winding 142 so as to cause plunger 148 to move intothe open core area 150, so that respective electric contact members 38and 102 are now so positioned (as shown in FIG. 8) that electric currentceases to flow to the vehicular lights and solenoid winding 142, therebypreventing the discharge of battery 44.

While FIG. 6 shows light control switch 20 in the first ON" position andplunger 148 slightly extending into open core area 150 of solenoid 144,FIG. 7 shows light control switch 20 in the second contact positionwherein solenoid plunger 148 extends further into open core area ofsolenoid 144.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 the lights will be automaticallyextinguished almost immediately following the turning of the ignitionswitch to the OFF" position. The immediate extinguishment of the lightsdescribed above can be delayed by placing a bi-metallic switch 152 inseries with solenoid 144, as shown in FIG. 9. In this embodiment shownin FIG. 9, bi-metallic switch 152 has a movable arm 154 and a fixed arm156, wherein both arms are insulateclly mounted to the exterior ofhousing 30, and fixed arm 156 is electrically connected to end 140 ofwinding 142 of solenoid 144. A heater coil 158 surrounds movable arm 154wherein one end thereof 160 is electrically connected to circuit ground,and the other end thereof 162 is electrically connected to movable arm154. When the ignition switch is turned to the OFF" position, electriccurrent flows through heater coil 158 so as to close bi-metallic switchat a delayed time. Once bi-metallic switch 158 closes, electric currentth'en directly passes through bimetallic switch 152 and solenoid winding142, whereupon the extinguishing mechanism operates as described abovewith respect to FIG. 6.

It should be noted that poles 78' and 80 and contact terminals l2, l4,l6 and 18 of ignition switch 10 are so designed and relativelypositioned that when pole 78 is electrically connected to contactterminal 14, pole 80 is electrically connected to contact terminal 16(as shown in FIG. 1) wherein contact terminal 14 is electricallyconnected to the ignition system and contact terminal 16 is electricallyconnected to the vehicles accessories; when pole 78 is electricallyconnected to contact terminal 12 (as shown in FIG. 3), the ignitionswitch is in the OFF position and pole 80 is not electrically connectedto any of the other contact terminals; when pole 78 is electricallyconnected to both the ignition system contact terminal 14 and motorcranking contact terminal 18, pole 80 becomes disconnected fromaccessory contact terminal 16 (as shown in FIG. and finally as shown inFIG. 11, when pole 80 is electrically connected to accessory contactterminal 16, pole 78 is electrically disconnected from the ignitionsystem contact terminal 14, motor cranking contact terminal 18, and OFFposition contact terminal 12.

It should be noted that the means for holding light control switch ineither of the first or second ON positions or the OFF position is notshown in FIGS. 6 through 9.

It is to be understood that the above invention is not limited in itsapplication solely to automative vehicles.

It is thus seem that there is provided an apparatus for automaticallyextinguishing vehicular lights which achieves the several objects of theinvention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made in the embodiments set forth above,it is to be un' derstood that all matter herein described, or shown inthe accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and notin a limiting-sense.

Having thus described the invention, there is claimed as new and isdesired to be secured by Letters Patent:

1. Apparatus for controlling the automatic extinguishing of vehicularheadlights comprising an ignition switch having ON and OFF contactterminals and at least one pole, a light control switch for turning thelights of a vehicle on and off and having an ON? and OFF" position, asource of power coupled to said one pole of said ignition switch and tosaid light control switch, means for automatically moving said lightcontrol switch to an OFF position for extinguishing the lights, electriccircuit means coupled to the OFF" contact terminal of said ignitionswitch for activating said automatic moving means, said electric circuitmeans including a disabling switch having an open condition and closedcondition whereby when said disabling switchis in its closed conditionelectric current is supplied from said source of power through saidigniopen condition said automatic moving means is inactive when said onepole is electrically connectedto the OFF contact terminal of saidignition switch so that the lights remain on even though the ignitionswitch is in the OFF position.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein means is provided forautomatically closing the disabling switch when said disabling switch isin its open condition as said light control switch is moved to its OFFposition.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including a signal indicatingmeans, and means for connecting said signal indicating means to saidsource of power when said disabling switch is in its open condition.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said means for automaticallyclosing said disabling switch as said light control switch is moved toits OFF position includes means which controls the opening and closingof said disabling switch, a member movable with said light controlswitch, said control means having a first position wherein saiddisabling switch is closed, and said member moving said control means toits first position if said control means is out of its first position assaid light control switch is moved to its OFF" position.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including means forcontrolling the opening and closing of said disabling switch, saidcontrol means having a first position wherein said disabling switch ismaintained in its closed condition and means maintaining said controlmeans in its first position when said light control switch is in its OFFposition.

I I I

1. Apparatus for controlling the automatic extinguishing of vehicularheadlights comprising an ignition switch having ''''ON'''' and''''OFF'''' contact terminals and at least one pole, a light controlswitch for turning the lights of a vehicle on and off and having an''''ON'''' and ''''OFF'''' position, a source of power coupled to saidone pole of said ignition switch and to said light control switch, meansfor automatically moving said light control switch to an ''''OFF''''position for extinguishing the lights, electric circuit means coupled tothe ''''OFF'''' contact terminal of said ignition switch for activatingsaid automatic moving means, said electric circuit means including adisabling switch having an open condition and closed condition wherebywhen said disabling switch is in its closed condition electric currentis supplied from said source of power through said ignition switch whensaid one pole is electrically connected to the ''''OFF''''contactterminal of said ignition switch and through saId electric circuit meansfor activating said automatic moving means to automatically extinguishthe lights and when said disabling switch is in its open condition saidautomatic moving means is inactive when said one pole is electricallyconnected to the ''''OFF'''' contact terminal of said ignition switch sothat the lights remain on even though the ignition switch is in the''''OFF'''' position.
 2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein means isprovided for automatically closing the disabling switch when saiddisabling switch is in its open condition as said light control switchis moved to its ''''OFF'''' position.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 1further including a signal indicating means, and means for connectingsaid signal indicating means to said source of power when said disablingswitch is in its open condition.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 2wherein said means for automatically closing said disabling switch assaid light control switch is moved to its ''''OFF'''' position includesmeans which controls the opening and closing of said disabling switch, amember movable with said light control switch, said control means havinga first position wherein said disabling switch is closed, and saidmember moving said control means to its first position if said controlmeans is out of its first position as said light control switch is movedto its ''''OFF'''' position.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 1 furtherincluding means for controlling the opening and closing of saiddisabling switch, said control means having a first position whereinsaid disabling switch is maintained in its closed condition and meansmaintaining said control means in its first position when said lightcontrol switch is in its ''''OFF'''' position.